MPO Policy Board recommends 'Alternative 3' for new Mon River bridge

Ben Conley, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.
·3 min read

Aug. 18—MORGANTOWN — There's been a lot of talk over the last few weeks about a new bridge crossing the Monongahela River and exactly where that bridge should go.

But when it came down to it Thursday evening, the Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Board did almost no talking before unanimously recommending the bridge location identified by the state as Alternative 3.

Based on rough preliminary sketches provided to The Dominion Post, that option would connect to U.S. 119 /Grafton Road in the less than half-mile stretch between Scott Avenue and the Glotfelty Tire Center, at 370 Grafton Road. The connection will intersect Smithtown Road at grade before crossing the river and connecting directly to Rail Street, which is part of the Morgantown Industrial Park road network.

The original publicly available drawings had the Smithtown Road crossing north of the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses (379 Smithtown Road).

Jason Foster, chief engineer of development with the West Virginia Division of Highways, said it will actually intersect some 500 to 1, 000 feet south of the Kingdom Hall. He pointed out those numbers are based on preliminary, not final, engineering.

"There's kind of a low gap in that area and we're using that grade to achieve the grade to Don Knotts (U.S. 119), " he said.

The DOH has said it intends to build the bridge in the next 28 months at a cost in the neighborhood of $70 million The state is building the span to provide better interstate access to the industrial park in a timely fashion, which was a promise it made in order to bring Mountaintop Beverage to West Virginia.

It was long believed that access would come by way of a new I-79 Harmony Grove interchange, but the state can't control how quickly the Federal Highway Administration signs off on a new interchange. And the number of trucks headed to Mountaintop is only going to increase over time.

Mountaintop Beverage began production in a portion of its 330, 000-square-foot bottling facility in May. It was previously explained that the entire facility—plus work on a 170, 000-square-foot expansion—could be well underway by year's end.

According to the DOH, it now intends to build both the bridge and the interchange. Early discussions indicate the Harmony Grove interchange could be completed one to two years after the bridge.

In other MPO news, Jing Zhang, a transportation planner II with the Morgantown Monongalia MPO, has been appointed by United States Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to be a member of a special Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity.

Zhang said he was one of some 240 applicants for the 24-member panel, which will hold its first meeting this fall. He will serve a two-year term on the committee.

"It's going to be a good learning experience to see how they get things done, " he said. "I hope to give them insight and expertise from the planning perspective."

According to the USDOT website, Buttigieg re-established the ACTE to provide independent advice and recommendations about issues of civil rights and various contexts of transportation equity from a variety of leaders.